Victory for the party comes despite unusual and aggressive efforts by Republicans to redraw congressional districts

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Democrats are poised to take control of the US House of Representatives after two tumultuous years of Donald Trump’s second presidency. A change in House control would give Democrats a perch to conduct robust oversight of the administration for its final two years.

Republicans currently hold 218 seats in the House and Democrats have 214. (There is one vacancy in a Republican seat and one vacancy in a Democratic seat, and one Republican member switched his party affiliation to independent.) Democrats need to flip just three seats to gain control of the House, something they are expected to do easily.

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Report says cost of maintenance could soon reach £2m a week, including 24-hour patrols to avert fire risk

The Palace of Westminster will be at risk of a Notre Dame-style fire or a similar catastrophic event if MPs do not tackle the issue of funding refurbishments, a parliamentary committee has said.

Decisions about how and when to begin a full restoration of the building, which is Grade I-listed and a Unesco world heritage site, have been repeatedly delayed amid disagreement over how it should be done and spiralling costs.

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V&A, London
Treasures from the two world-defining cultures that somehow coexisted in one mighty city keep on dazzling in this gorgeous, unmissable show

Two empires compete to bewitch you in this exhibition that offers a double bubble of beauty. It collides the Byzantine empire, whose capital Constantinople was officially inaugurated on 11 May AD330, with the Ottoman Turks who conquered this great city in 1453 and turned it into Istanbul. The combined glories of two lost worlds – the Ottoman empire was dissolved in 1922 – beget an utterly enrapturing blockbuster. I lost all track of time in this dream city of gold and ivory.

Even the human form is magically transfigured here into mineral and metal. The martyred abbess St Eudokia becomes a Byzantine icon of marble inlaid with coloured glass, wearing a crown of precious stones and an exquisite dress patterned with diamonds and decorated with pearls and emeralds. It is a masterpiece of abstract splendour that looks like a Klimt painting, but this icon can’t have influenced him because it wasn’t excavated until 1929.

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Weer voor Rotterdam ☁️ - 04-11-2026 01:16 CET

In één oogopslag:
• 7.0°C · Bewolkt ☁️ | Min 4.8°C / Max 10.1°C

Verwachting voor vandaag:
• Min 4.8°C, Max 10.1°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1030.9 hPa ↘️ -1.7 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 24.1 km/u (6.7 m/s), richting: ↙ 67°

Uurlijkse voorspelling voor de komende 12 uur:

• 02:00: 7.1°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1032.6 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 14.4 km/u (4.0 m/s), richting: ↙ 58°
• 03:00: 7.3°C (Gedeeltelijk bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1032.2 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 16.6 km/u (4.6 m/s), richting: ← 68°
• 04:00: 6.9°C (Helder) 🌕, 🧭 1031.8 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 16.2 km/u (4.5 m/s), richting: ↙ 61°
• 05:00: 6.4°C (Helder) 🌕, 🧭 1031.6 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 16.6 km/u (4.6 m/s), richting: ↙ 62°
• 06:00: 5.9°C (Helder) 🌕, 🧭 1031.5 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 16.9 km/u (4.7 m/s), richting: ↙ 56°
• 07:00: 5.8°C (Helder) 🌕, 🧭 1031.6 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 17.3 km/u (4.8 m/s), richting: ↙ 58°
• 08:00: 5.7°C (Zonnig) ☀️, 🧭 1032.0 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 18.0 km/u (5.0 m/s), richting: ↙ 61°
• 09:00: 6.4°C (Gedeeltelijk bewolkt) ⛅, 🧭 1032.2 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 19.4 km/u (5.4 m/s), richting: ↙ 67°
• 10:00: 7.2°C (Gedeeltelijk bewolkt) ⛅, 🧭 1032.3 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 20.5 km/u (5.7 m/s), richting: ← 71°
• 11:00: 8.2°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1031.9 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 20.2 km/u (5.6 m/s), richting: ← 73°
• 12:00: 8.9°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1031.3 hPa ↘️ -0.6 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 20.9 km/u (5.8 m/s), richting: ← 71°
• 13:00: 9.6°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1030.7 hPa ↘️ -0.6 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 21.6 km/u (6.0 m/s), richting: ↙ 65°

Voorspelling voor de komende dagen:

• donderdag 05 november: Min 3.0°C, Max 10.2°C (Zonnig) ☀️, 🧭 1027.6 hPa ↘️ -3.3 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 19.1 km/u (5.3 m/s), richting: ← 76°
• vrijdag 06 november: Min 2.6°C, Max 8.3°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1024.2 hPa ↘️ -3.4 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 14.8 km/u (4.1 m/s), richting: ← 78°
• zaterdag 07 november: Min 3.8°C, Max 8.4°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 5%, 🧭 1021.6 hPa ↘️ -2.6 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 10.3 km/u (2.9 m/s), richting: ↑ 167°
• zondag 08 november: Min 6.0°C, Max 10.3°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 1.5 mm, Kans op neerslag 12%, 🧭 1018.8 hPa ↘️ -2.8 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 10.9 km/u (3.0 m/s), richting: ↑ 197°
• maandag 09 november: Min 2.6°C, Max 8.5°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 7%, 🧭 1016.2 hPa ↘️ -2.6 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 8.8 km/u (2.4 m/s), richting: ↑ 170°
• dinsdag 10 november: Min 1.8°C, Max 6.8°C (Mist) 🌫️, Kans op neerslag 31%, 🧭 1015.4 hPa ↘️ -0.8 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 18.6 km/u (5.2 m/s), richting: ← 92°

Details:
• 🌡️ Huidige temperatuur (om 01:15): 7.0°C (Bewolkt)
• 🤚 Gevoelstemperatuur: 3.7°C (-3.3°C)
• 💨 Windsnelheid: 16.2 km/u (4.5 m/s), richting: ↙ 64°
• 🌬️ Windstoten: 29.9 km/h (8.3 m/s)
• 💧 Luchtvochtigheid: 86%
• 🧭 Luchtdruk: 1032.6 hPa ↘️ -0.8 hPa/3h
• 👁️ Zichtbaarheid: 10.9 km
• ☀️ UV-index: 0.0
• 🌅 Zonsopgang: 07:41 · 🌇 Zonsondergang: 17:08

Luchtkwaliteit:
• AQI: 46 🟢 (Goed)
• PM2.5: 10.8 μg/m³
• PM10: 14.6 μg/m³

Gegevens geleverd door Open-Meteo

#Rotterdam #Meteo #MeteoBot #MeteoNetherlands #OpenMeteo #FediMeteo

Australian design software maker Canva is restructuring, with 1,271 employees, or 22 percent of its workforce, facing layoffs, changes to their roles, or requests to relocate. The company, which has become a challenger to Adobe, announced the news by sharing a message that CEO Melanie Perkins sent to staff on Wednesday. That missive, titled “An important update on our team,” doesn’t mention AI but does state “New technology is transforming what people can create, how they create it, and what they expect from the products they use.” Perkins observed that Canva’s rate of growth recently slowed for the first time in a decade and shared her view that continued success won’t happen without change. “After exploring a wide range of alternatives, I've come to the difficult conclusion that small changes won’t be enough,” she wrote. “To set ourselves up for the next decade, we need to refound Canva, getting back to our roots of small, empowered teams with the freedom to make decisions, take ownership and focus on what matters most for our community.” The CEO did not say how many jobs would go, but argued the changes are necessary because the company has become inefficient. The changes will therefore see Canva combine its product, growth and platform teams into a single “Product Org,” which Perkins says means “changing the way we work to provide clearer ownership, greater autonomy and flexibility to tackle our most important goals.” She characterized the changes as “simplifying layers, consolidating overlapping responsibilities, and ensuring teams have the right mix of skills and experience for the chapter ahead.” The CEO three times described herself as “deeply sorry” for the changes. Affected staff will receive a calendar invite for an optional individual meeting with a senior leader. Remaining staff get to attend two rounds of meetings next week – one company-wide affair and another with their reorganized teams. Another of Perkins’ decisions will see Canva move more of its product teams to its headquarters in Sydney, Australia. The company will ask some staff to relocate and has promised “comprehensive support” to make that happen. Departing staff can keep their company-issued MacBooks and will receive at least six months' pay, a year of health insurance, plus various forms of support to find a new gig including a one-year membership of LinkedIn Premium. Perkins’ post does not cite financial pressures as a reason for the layoffs. Canva is privately held and does not face the same financial disclosure requirements as a listed business, but last year revealed it had 260 million monthly users and revenue of $3.5 billion. Execs have previously claimed the company is profitable on a free-cash-flow basis. Canva and Atlassian are among Australia’s most successful and celebrated technology businesses. Both have now announced job cuts this year. ®

An adviser to the EU's highest court says Google's Gemini may violate publishers' copyright when it reproduces recognizable portions of their articles or circumvents paywalls and other technical protections to generate answers. Reuters reports: The case before the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union pitted Hungarian website operator Like Company against US-based Google's artificial intelligence chatbot Gemini. A ruling against Google, which could force the tech giant to pay fees for the use of such content, could throw a lifeline to online media such as Like Company. They have seen traffic dwindle as news summaries written by AI chatbots like Gemini increasingly replace traditional search engines' results, which include hyperlinks to the media websites.

"When an LLM (large language model)-driven chatbot retrieves a publication from a press publisher's website, reuses that publication to generate an answer, and provides that answer to the user, the press publisher's right may be infringed in certain circumstances," Advocate General Maciej Szpunar said. Gemini's answers fall under the publishers' right of reproduction when chatbots access publications by unlawfully "circumventing paywalls or other technical barriers, or when they reuse "the form of expression of that publication in a recognizable manner," he said.

Copyright rules do not protect the "mere facts" reported by press publications, but "only the specific form of expression," he added. On the other hand, he said, the use of material protected by copyright to train LLMs -- AI systems that use vast amounts of text to generate human-like responses and summarize information -- is "freely permitted under the text and data mining exception." Szpunar said there was no evidence that Google had used the Hungarian publisher's articles to train Gemini. The court, which follows the majority of its advisers' non-binding opinions, will rule in the coming months. "Google's powerful gatekeeping role in search makes this particularly important. Publishers depend on Google to reach readers, while Google increasingly delivers AI-generated answers directly to users," said Angela Mills Wade, the council's executive director.

"Publishers should not have to choose between search visibility and protecting their rights. Nor should Google's control over access to audiences become leverage to secure publishers' content for AI services," she said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

uchi uchi has added a photo to the pool:

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De flappentapper staat vlak bij de kassa. Twee jongens van een jaar of tien staan voor me in de rij. „Waar is die voor?”, vraagt de een.

Horizontaal: 1. Voorstelling 4. Dat handelsplatform werd getroffen door het middenwoord 9. __ Maria 10. Een en al __ 11. Bedrieglijk voorkomen 13.

Dat er systemisch geweld bestaat, is waar. Maar het antwoord daarop is niet het geweld van het oproer, schrijft Bernard-Henri Lévy. Het is de rechtsstaat. Het is gerechtigheid.

Feyenoord komt zowel fysiek als technisch tekort tegen Europese grootmacht Internazionale. Eerder op de dag, bij de confrontatie in de Youth League, was meer spanning te beleven.